We are delighted to be hosting the annual Babel Lecture 2025, in partnership with Babel Magazine.
Join us on Thursday 30 October for a free lecture from John Vice OBE, former Editor of Debates in the House of Lords.
Full details are below.
John Vice OBE
John Vice worked for Hansard in the Houses of Parliament for more than 30 years, spending nearly half that time as Editor of Debates in the House of Lords. He and his team were responsible for producing Lords Hansard, which is the official report of everything that is said in the Chamber.
Now retired, John can talk freely about the challenges of writing an account of spoken debates, illustrating with anecdotes about those challenges, such as when Members sing, or swear, or are sarcastic, or use props, or speak incoherently or ungrammatically, or want to change the record. John will explain what Hansard's work is, why it does what it does, and why its work still matters in a multimedia age of AI and populism, and he will show that Hansard's solutions are rich in linguistic theory and practice. He was awarded an OBE in 2022 for services to parliament.
Event details
Venue:
Sibson Lecture Theatre 1
Sibson Building
Canterbury
Kent
CT2 7PE
Timings:
17:30 Join us for drinks in Sibson Atrium
18:30 The Babel Lecture in Sibson Lecture Theatre 1
19:45 Lecture to close with Q&A
Getting here:
Our Canterbury campus is easily accessible by road, rail and bus - please see our transport links page.
Parking:
Parking is available free of charge after 17:00 across campus, please see the available locations.
The nearest car park to Sibson Building is Giles Lane.
Wifi:
Visitor WiFi, provided by The Cloud, is available in all our venues on campus and is easily accessible on the day. Please see the set up details.